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Tuesday, December 08, 2015

The Poe Estate

Shulman, Polly. The Poe EstateSeptember 15th 2015 by Nancy Paulsen Books Sukie's family is struggling; her mother quit her job as a teacher to take care of Sukie's sister, Kitty, who had a fatal family blood disease. Her father had trouble finding work, and the income from the antiques the family hunts down was not enough. They move in to their cousin Hepzibah's house to help the elderly woman, and Sukie does enjoy cleaning the attic and learning about her family history. She uncovers a broom while cleaning the attic, and when she takes it to the antique mall, several rather threatening people try to buy it. Two of the people are from the New York Circulating Materials Repository, and Elizabeth and Andre eventually tell her that her house is a fictional one, and they would like to collect it for the Repository, for a new exhibit on which they are working that features similar houses that have come to exist after being written about in books. Sukie is frequently visited by the ghost of her sister, but after encountering som evil characters, her sister's ghost becomes more and more dangerous. With the help of her new friend, Cole, who shares some of her literary ancestors, Sukie learns to ride the broom, learns about the Poe Estate as well as the Lovecraft Corpus, and must work to rid her family of their legacy of ghosts. Strengths: Objects that come in to being after being written about? Yes, please! Sukie's house was deliciously old and intriguing, and I thought the family was dealing well with the sister's death. No hand wringing, just a confirmation of sadness and a desire to move on as best they can. Very nice. The cousin was delightful as well, and the way the house was dealt with made sense. Weaknesses: Not very much mentioned about Poe, really; just a fictional fictional author. This watered down the story for me, and there wasn't enough time spent at the Repository for my taste, since I really want to work there!What I really think: Not quite as good as the first or second, but reasonable. Perhaps there will be one more book to tidy things up.

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Because this blog is aimed at librarians and patrons of school libraries, I will not review books that are published solely in e-book formats or that are self published. Books should be available in hardcover or library binding through library suppliers such as Baker and Taylor or Follett. Books should fall within the target demographics of this blog.